El Paso boxer Antonio Escalante still has hope in his corner

The highs are such a mind-altering high. But the lows ... oh, those knockout lows are simply devastating.

For a moment in time, for several days actually, Antonio Escalante pondered retirement. At the least, he said he was going to take eight months off, dedicate the time to his wife and children, to give them the time they had given him, to give them the support they had given him.

Boxing could wait.

Maybe forever.

Then the devastation of defeat slowly wears off. Opportunities arise. Hope is still in his corner.

Smiling that ever-present smile, Escalante said, "I wanted to take some time. My head was warm; it was hot. I didn't do good. I didn't fight well. I dropped my hands and got caught. There's some news, Tony Escalante dropped his hands. But I looked at the tape and I didn't fight that bad."

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Bill Knight

The fight Escalante is talking about was his Oct. 27 loss to Rocky Juarez in San Antonio, an eighth-round technical knockout. It was his third loss in his last seven fights. But ...

"Tony was actually fighting pretty well," said his co-trainer Carlos Campos. "He got caught going back with his hands down. But he learned some things from that fight."

And then came the opportunities.

"I talked to Golden Boy (Promotions, which handles Escalante)," Campos said. "They still like Tony, they still want to work with him ... to get things fixed and get him back on the right track."

Escalante, 27, is 28-5 now with 19 knockouts. He has gone through a period of turmoil, a period of change, and he believes he has come out on the other side as a better fighter.

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"We sat down and analyzed everything," Escalante said. "The number one thing was sparring. We simply can't get the sparring we need here. I was sparring with two 17-year-old kids. I'm really thankful to them for sparring, but they are kids, and no way could I hit them as hard as I should, and no way could they hit me the way Rocky Juarez was going to. Your face, your chin ... you've got to get them ready just like the rest of your body, and when you haven't been taking any punches, you feel it."

"You know, you never stop learning in this sport," Escalante said. "I learned a lot in that last fight -- inside and out. Earlier in my career, I had some sparring partners from Juárez and a guy from Durango. But I lost touch with them. Now we're going to have to go up to Albuquerque and over to Lubbock to get the sparring we need."

One constant battle for Escalante has been to keep his hands up. He had a limited number of amateur fights (43) and he was such a powerful amateur, he simply relied on his strength to knock people out.

"I never learned defense," Escalante said, laughing. "I had good head movement, but my hands were down, balancing me. Now I'm trying to learn to keep my hands up and still have the head movement. That's my next challenge -- trying to learn things I should have learned as an amateur."

And Campos said, "Tony just had so much power as an amateur, he never learned defense. Even when he got to the pros, at the lighter weights, he still relied on his power. It was good. But it was a double-edged sword. He never learned to box. As he moved up against better and better fighters, it began to be a problem. But he's learning. Every fighter learns, even from losses."

But the losses are hard -- hard on the psyche, hard on the pocketbook.

Chuckling, Escalante said, "I lost all my sponsors. Nobody loves a loser. And I know a lot of people think Tony Escalante is finished. But I'm not. I'm still young and I'm still learning and I'm still here."

Escalante said he has been offered a spot on a fight card in the Don Haskins Center on Feb. 22, a main event that was originally scheduled for Hector Camacho Jr. before Camacho's father's death. Escalante will have the grand opening of his new gym -- a fitness and boxing training facility -- in February.

"I love the sport, and I want to get deeply involved," he said. "I want to get into promoting at some point. And I want to have my gym. But, for now, I still believe I have a chance as a fighter. In the beginning, you think you will be Floyd Mayweather (Jr.) and be 30-0. Then reality sets in. But that doesn't mean I still can't do something in this sport."

Escalante has been on the cusp, rising to the No. 1-ranked fighter in the world at 122 pounds. He has had his ups and downs, learned things from those bounces, and now he wants to give it another run.

Hope, after all, is still in his corner.

And the possibilities still float tantalizingly out there ... along with the joys of victory and the devastation of defeat.

Bill Knight may be reached at bknight@elpasotimes.com; 546-6171. Follow him on Twitter @BillKnightept

ESCALANTE"FILE

Who: Antonio Escalante.

Background: 5-6, 130"pounds, junior lightweight.

Of note: Formerly ranked No. 1 in the world at 122 pounds; owns a 28-5 record with 19 knockouts; still promoted by Oscar De La Hoya's Golden Boy Promotions.